Monk Subdivision - Bridge Collapse

While installing the last piece of backdrop this evening, I shut the door off while cutting a piece of MDF in the workshop. I heard the distinct noise of a wood stick falling on the concrete floor. My brain immediately knew what it meant. I may have missed the loud noise made by it due to my ear protectors, but only ONE stick could have produced that highly recognizable noise. It was the lift bridge that collapsed after the retaining stick had fallen due to vibration.

For a few weeks, I wanted to make a stick with anti-slip rubber ends before building a proper stopping mechanism. I failed to implement it for various trivial reason and there, the bridge was down. Given the falling height and the bridge weight, I knew the damage would be substantial.

The lip shattered and took away the spline and abutment with it

The lip exploded, including the bridge abutment and the piece of spline glued to it, shattering wood under the stress of screws. On the hinges side, their wooden support unglued themselves while the 3/4 inch plywood forming the structure splintered like cardboard. The bridge itself was no longer horizontal, but sank down noticeably and the backdrop jammed itself on the rest of the layout. It was a mess.

I must have been quite tired because I calmly assessed the situation and started to dismantle the hinges to relieve some stress. Moving the bridge out of the doorway required quite a lot of strength. It was jammed as if someone had driven it with a sledgehammer.

Plywood was badly damaged at the hinges where the shock was absorbed

Fortunately, the mechanical parts, electrical dowels and hinges were intact albeit laying all over the place. The resin abutment, thought shattered, could be repaired because it broke in three large pieces. No missing shards and the weathering job wasn't affected.

I carefully cleaned the splintered pieces of wood, removing the screws and loose wood fibers. I then reglued everything in place, carefully filling the fissures with carpented glue and making sure everything was square and tight with many clamps. After 30 minutes, almost everything was repaired. Another hour will be required tomorrow to reinstall the hinges supports, the spline and the electrical dowel at the far end.

The abutment broke, but didn't shatter... fortunately

Until I build a safer stopping mechanism, I won't reinstall the lift bridge. I knew it was a liability and I'm lucky the damages weren't fatal.

With that said, the backdrop is almost all in place and sanded down. It will require some putty work after primer, but so far, the result is good. I didn't expect it would be so challenging, but truth to be told, it is! I still need to address a weird corner though. Can't wait to paint the powder blue sky and the Appalachian landscale. It will means that I'm finally ready to reinstall the splines, lay the track and wire them. Something that I've been waiting for more than 5 years.

Monk Subdivision: Circling the Circle

Work on the layout has progressed tremendously over the weekend. Small but crucial tasks made it possible to get the benchwork in place and firmly attached to the stone wall. I now have an almost complete shelf all around the room.

If you have followed the building saga of Monk Subdivision, you know the original benchwork was independent from the stone wall and self supported by a pair of legs and braces. This arrangement had several pitfalls, the more severe being its flimsy nature. It was 16 feet long and wobbling a lot. Another issue was the legs and braces that took a lot of space while providing very little stability. So, this time, steel shelf brackets were mounted on 2x4 attached on the stone wall with concrete screws. I thought it would be a nightmare to drill that wall made of rubble, but it worked very nice and in about 3 hours, all the benchwork was back in place.

 

Finding the real alignment on such an imperfect wall was the big challenge, not the work itself. After some pondering, we decided to install the already assembled benchwork in place, in the right alignment and mounted on temporary legs. Using a long aluminium straightedge, we made sure it was perfectly aligned. 2 x 4s were screwed on the benchwork, then shims were installed to fit the uneven wall. Everything was solidly fixed, painted and brackets installed.

The result is a surprisingly strong and stable shelf. The ergonomics are also much better than the original installation. I may have been set back by a year and a half, but honestly, it pays off. I also decided to make the backdrop 24” high for better photography. Armagh is the main focal point and I prefer a scene that surrounds you.

The next steps will be to close the little 24” long gap in the benchwork, then install the MDF backdrop and paint it. At this point, I will be ready to reinstall the original splines I had carefully cut and stored. Having carefully disassembled the original layout helped to save a lot of rebuilding time. If everything goes well, I could be able to glue the roadbed, install track and do a temporary wiring job in the next few weeks. Without pressure, I would like to be able to run trains around the room by the end of June, which is my main goal with that project.

Benchwork back in place, except the little gap at left

As you have probably observed, I changed my mindset to progress instead of perfection. Good track work, good benchwork, step by step implementation, possibility to go back and improve. I was originally stalled by wanting every steps to be finalized and perfect before moving forward. It doesn’t work. I still don’t know how I will address the staging area turnout issues and crossover, but I know I can still use it as long as 1 track is functional. Others will follow later when and if they are required. Wiring will be minimal then improved according to my empirical needs and not my list of “nice to have”. At the end of the day, a moving train on a loop beats an uncompleted exciting vision. That said, I make sure each steps I do will ensure I can improve and implement more things in the future. In that sense, I'm really glad to have streamlined that projects to a single track mainline with a passing track. It takes out of the window so much hassle, misery and complexity.

As an example, I will start with Peco turnouts with their spring-loaded throw bars. Sure, the holes will be drilled and the frog wire solder at installation. But Tortoise, complex wiring and signals will come later, when the basics stuff is in place and troubleshooted. I guess getting older makes me more impatient to run my trains, yet more pragmatic in what I can achieve.